Wednesday, February 08, 2012

What Do We Look For in a Pre-school?

Kiara is turning 4 this June and we are looking for a pre-school, as a teacher and researcher this is what we look for or ideas in choosing a pre-school for Kiara:

Proximity - because we do not want her to waste time traveling and being stuck in a traffic

Schedule - class should start between 8-11 am because she still has to sleep in the afternoon,

research shows that as children start going to school they lack sleep, we do not want her to lack any sleep,

at 3 and 8 months she stands 3 feet and 5 inches. We want her to be really tall, more sleep, more height as research also shows.

Teacher-student ratio- the best ratio for me is 1:5 or 1:6 but to find this ratio, you have to pay high like in gymboree classes, some schools have at the most 20 students with 2 teacher and a teacher aid. With a big class of 20, there is a big tendency that some student will be left out, because teachers will either be busy looking after children causing trouble or making noise or disrupting the class. Kiara is soft-spoken, you know what happen if you are quiet. Teacher tends to forget you because you are not hard to handle. I know this I was once like this and I am a teacher, really, being quiet does not attract attention.

Curriculum- I am not a fan of any curriculum because I believe that learning really depends on the student, it should be individualized. Any curriculum will do. Research also shows that if you enroll your children at a summer program or advance program, there is little impact when these children start going to school as compared to those students who have not enrolled in a summer school. Both students, at some point get the same grade, learns the same things etc. Being in school is advantageous, being out of school is not.

Price: you get what you pay for: pay small, sometimes you learn big, paying big does not necessarily brings big learning. I will stick to pay small and learn big. I can pay small and maybe hire a tutor, the combined expenses can

equal the amount of a regular pre-school. At least there is individualized learning.